Tuesday, January 27

Kiwi and Coconut Muffins and a Quiz

It's been a while since there was a quiz at Food Blogga. Are you ready? I'm warning you, if you thought the GRE was hard, wait until you get a look at some of these questions.

1. Which of the following is true about the name "kiwi"?A. It is the presumed name of Gwenyth Paltrow's next baby, whose daughter is named Apple.B. It is the name of a new ipod that stores recipes.C. It is both the name of a flightless bird and the national symbol in New Zealand and replaced the fruit's original name, "the Chinese Gooseberry."

2. All of the following are true about the kiwifruit except:A. It's an edible fruit that grows on a vine.B. It's rich in vitamin C, fiber, antioxidants, and even omega-3 fatty acids.C. It's on the list of endangered species.

3. _______ is the leading producer of kiwifruit in the world today:A. New ZealandB. Alaska (and there are people who deny global warming)C. Italy

4. ________will happen if you eat the skin of a kiwifruit:A. You'll start referring to all of your friends as "mate" and talk with a New Zealand accent.B. Nothing, it's edible.C. Your stomach will begin to sprout unsightly fuzzy hair. Then you'll have to visit Jeff's derm blog to find out how to remove it.

Read on for the answers.

Just when I thought fava beans had a lot of names, along comes the kiwifruit (kiwi) originally known as the Chinese Gooseberry. It's also known as the Macaque peach, the vine pear, the sunny peach, the hairy bush fruit, and my personal favorite, "strange fruit."

Call it what you will. Just make sure you eat these edible berries. The kiwifruit is the edible berry of the cultivar group of the woody vine Actinidia deliciosa and hybrids between this and other species in the genus Actinidia, which is native to Shaanxi, China. But who doesn't already know that?

Kiwis are grown in mild climates all over the world. Surprisingly, New Zealand is not the leading world producer of their famed fruit. The land of pasta, balsamic vinegar, and buffalo mozzarella is --Italy. Though I wouldn't recommend eating kiwi with any of the aforementioned foods.

Kiwis are both delicious and nutritious. With a flavor that tastes like a mix of citrus, grapes, strawberries, and bananas, a kiwi is both sweet and tart. Though the hairy outer skin is edible, I'd advise against eating it. That is, unless you really need the fiber -- a kiwi's fiber is tripled with the skin on. If you do eat it, then have a new container of dental floss at the ready. You'll need it.

Kiwis are highly nutritious: 2 kiwis are just over 100 calories and provide over 280% of your daily vitamin C needs! They're also a good source of cancer-fighting antioxidants, vitamin A, fiber, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Kiwis are ideal in fruit salads, but they're also wonderful in savory salads, salsas, and smoothies. If you've never baked with fresh kiwifruit, then get ready to be pleasantly surprised with these Kiwi and Coconut Muffins. Made with light coconut milk, orange blossom honey, and orange zest, they're remarkably moist and enticingly aromatic. Each bite is punctuated with juicy fresh kiwi and crunchy coconut topping. After finishing one, you may just find yourself saying, "Hey, mate, how 'bout another?"Kiwi and Coconut MuffinsMade with light coconut milk, orange blossom honey, and orange zest, these muffins are remarkably moist and enticingly aromatic. Plus, each bite is punctuated with juicy fresh kiwi and crunchy coconut topping.

Place rack in center of oven and preheat to 375 degrees F. Spray a 12 mold regular size muffin pan with cooking spray.

Peel kiwis. Dice and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together coconut milk, melted butter, and eggs. Add the orange zest, honey, and vanilla extract, and whisk until just combined. Add to the flour mixture, and stir quickly until well combined. Fold in the kiwis and toasted coconut. Spoon the batter evenly into the 12 molds.

Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with 3 tablespoons shredded coconut.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a cake tester inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before removing each muffin and placing on a wire rack to cool.

** Use kiwis that are ripe yet still somewhat firm. If they're squishy, then they'll be too watery in the muffins. Also avoid adding more than 3/4 cup as it could make the batter too wet.

59 comments:

That little fleck of verdant kiwi in the cut muffin just made my day (and my mouth water). This is one of the most innovative muffin combinations I've seen in awhile and I'm really impressed! I might be tempted to add just a tad of green food coloring to half the batch which, if too ugly for others to eat, I'll gobble up myself :P Thanks for this!

And did you know that France is a major producer of kiwifruit?We had our own vines (must have two, male and female) in the Vendee; she (only the female fruits) was extremely prolific. We'd cut them back to nothing, they'd grow like crazy and we'd get hundreds of fruit...I miss that..... We'd normally pick the fruit in January and have them the rest of the winter.Fun quiz!and nice muffins....

Oh my! I never knew Kiwis were even grown at all in Italy! Live and learn :) And very well done baking them into muffins-- I always thought they were too soft and juicy (like strawberries) and any dessert application with them had to have them fresh. These look wonderful, though!

I am curious about italy producing so many kiwi fruits - do they eat them a lot or just export them - I just can't think of traditional italian food with kiwi fruits!

And regarding eating the skin, I was once told by a New Zealander I worked with that she used to eat them with the skin before finding out all the pesticides the skin contained - which put me off the skin too!

What an interesting flavor combination! I've never seen a recipe with baked kiwi, although we love the plain old raw fruit here in this house of boys. Thanks for the great idea...we will definitely be trying these.

I just tried this recipe but didnt feel like using +2 egg whites so I jsut used 2 eggs overall and they came out really yummy. I was impressed with how moist and soft the muffins were. The only sad part is that it really didnt scream 'kiwi coconut muffin' but rather 'coconut orange muffin'.